How to create docs

Product Support

AI-generated summary

In a Support discussion titled “How to create docs” tagged with docs, Yoni_Balkind asks how to add new docs in their trial Discourse instance. JammyDodger explains that docs are not a separate content type, but rather topics assigned to a specific category or tag configured in docs settings — these then appear on the docs page. Yoni_Balkind follows up, clarifying whether “Posts” are distinct from “Topics,” and asks how to submit a post. JammyDodger clarifies that a Topic is a conversation made up of individual Posts — for example, this very thread is a Topic composed of multiple Posts. They also share examples from Meta’s own docs page to illustrate how topics are rendered as docs: one doc page and its corresponding topic. The exchange helps new users understand that Docs are essentially curated Topics, and Posts are the individual messages that make up those Topics.

1

I’m new to Discourse. I’m running a trial instance with docs enabled. I can see the docs but I dont see how to add new docs. Can someone point me in the right direction please?

2

Hello and welcome @Yoni_Balkind :slight_smile:

You create topics as normal in either a category or with a tag you’ve added to the docs settings, and that will add them to your docs page. :+1:

3

Hmm okay, so docs are not a different content type per se. Its just a “bucket” of sorts for topics that have a certain category.

Okay so if I may segue into a follow up questions: I see that there is a concept of Posts and this seems to be something different to Topics. But I can’t quite see how to submit a post. Is a Post simply a reply to a topic?

4

Docs have a special page and a slightly different layout, but are built from regular topics. You can check out ours here on Meta Documentation - Discourse Meta. This is the docs version of one https://meta.discourse.org/docs?topic=224824 and this is the topic Trust Level Permissions Reference :slight_smile:

A topic is a collection of posts linked together to make a conversation. :slight_smile: This discussion we’re now having, for example, is a topic consisting of individual posts.